Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show (a J!-ENT World Groove Digital Album Review)

1. Science Fiction Double Feature
2. Damn It, Janet
3. What Happened to Saturday Night?
4. Sweet Transvestite
5. Touch a Touch A Touch a Touch Me
6. There’s a Light (Over At the Frankenstein Place)
7. Time Warp

The FOX musical, comedy-drama known as “Glee” has received a lot of praise and its popularity of the show and the music has done extremely well in the US as well as in several countries.  With several soundtracks released and each having entered in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 Music Charts, now here we are with “Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show” featuring the music from the “Rocky Horror Glee Show” episode shown in October 2010.

The episode revolves around glee club director Will Schuester jealous that his former flame Emma and her boyfriend Dr. Carl Howell are doing very well in their relationship and he is taking her to screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.  So, immediately to wow Emma, he tells her that the glee club is doing their rendition of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

So, we get music from the popular cult film: “Science Fiction Double Feature” (sung by the character Santana), “Damn It, Janet” (sung by Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Mercedes and Quinn), “Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?” (sung by Dr. Carl Howell), “Sweet Transvestite” (sung by Mercedes, Santana & Britney), “Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me” (sung by Emma, alongside with Santana, Brittany, Will, Kurt, Finn & Dr. Carl Howell), “There’s a Light (Over a the Frankenstein Place)” (sung by Rachel, Finn & Kurt) and “Time Warp” (sung by Kurt, Quinn, Tina, Brittany, Santana, Artie and Finn).

And the album once again placed in the top 10 of various charts worlwide and received the highest position on the music charts for a Rocky Horror album.

When I first heard about “The Rocky Horror Glee Show”, the first thing that came to my mind was “Cool!” followed by a…”Do people of this younger generation know what ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ is?” and also even if they didn’t, many would be too young to even watch it or may pass on it because it’s a film that is too old for them.

Also, what went through my mind was, a show trying to do a rendition of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, a popular cult film in which I can easily remember watching alongside with people in my theater class and everyone going crazy over the music.  But will people accept a Glee version of it?

After watching the episode, my answer is yes.  There are very good renditions of the songs on this album.  My favorites include “Damn It, Janet” and John Stamos (Dr. Carl Howell) brings almost a ’70s Grease-like John Travolta-esque rendition of “Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?” but clearly my favorite are two tracks and that “Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me” sung by Jayma Mays (Emma) and “Time Warp” performed by many of the cast members.

Probably the most difficult song from the film was for the track “Sweet Transvestite”.  There is a reason why the song is popular for the film but I felt that having Amber Riley (Mercedes) performing the song was mismatched.  Amber is a fantastic vocalist but she was not the right person to play Frank.   It’s not more about her voice but it’s about her character being forced to perform the song and perhaps it was the network and producers trying to play things safe by not having a guy singing the song but a female cast member.

But overall, I simply enjoyed this album and it’s a wonderful tribute to the film.  Vocals were well-done, production for the album was great and for the most part, if you are a Glee fan or “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fan, it’s definitely worth checking out.  Of course, if you are a hardcore fan of the original, it’s not going to replace the original by any means.  But for this new generation, especially the younger ones who probably will never watch the film, it’s a suitable, accessible and safe album.

If you are selective on which tracks on the album, I definitely recommend “Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me”, “There’s A Light (Over At The Frankenstein Place)” and “Time Warp”.